Czech out the Kolaches

 When you fall in love with a Texas Czech, there are a few things that are bound to happen.  The sunshine will seem brighter, the love songs on the radio will all make sense, and … you will want to learn everything there is to know about kolaches.

A staple of the Texas Czech population, available at any Shipley’s or Kolache Factory in the area, you might think that there isn’t much to learn about this simple semi-sweet treat, but our quest across the Texas hill country in search of the perfect kolache yielded surprising insights.

To start with, any knowledgeable Czech can confirm that there is no such thing as a sausage kolache. A piece of sausage covered in soft bready dough is called klobasniky. Using a small piece of sausage that is basically the size of a cocktail wiener is completely unacceptable.  A klobasniky needs at least a two inch piece of a regular size sausage link split lengthwise.  Fortunately, there are almost as many sausage alternatives in the area as there are kolaches.

I discovered that there are in fact a number of different styles of kolache and the characteristics of the dough seem to vary widely.  Some kolache dough seemed to be more like a danish while others had a yellow cake-like quality.  We’ve traveled to kolache festivals and found that the pastries had every fruit filling imaginable including the traditional prune or poppy seed. Just about any type of filing that can be used in a pie is fair game for kolaches.  Our favorite commercially made kolaches are found at either Praske’s or Hruska’s, but nothing can beat homemade. The favorite kolache dough for Al’s family is light bready dough with only a hint of sweetness.

When Al first shared his mother’s kolache recipe, I will admit that I saw it as an opportunity to quickly impress my new beau. It turned out to be quite a journey.  The recipe was little more than a simple list of ingredients.  As any baker will tell you, that is not sufficient information to recreate a cross between bread and pastry in a way that would live up to childhood memories. Like a mad scientist creating potions in a lab, I put my degree in chemistry to good use as I embarked on a number of experiments to perfect my ability to make this family favorite.

I tried a variety of different rising times for the dough, experimented off and on for 2 years with the proper time to knead the dough.  Then of course, I had to recreate the fillings and the posipka topping. The secret to the dough turned out to be a fairly long time kneading in the stand mixer (about 12 min.) followed by at least 1.5 hrs for the first rise in a slightly warmed oven.  Like a bread recipe, the dough must rise a second time after the egg size dough balls are formed and I let the kolaches rise one final time after I fill them before baking in a 350 degree oven.

So, was all that time researching recipes and experimenting with my kolache making technique worth it?  Well, the kolaches are delicious and it seems that I’ve passed this family initiation rite because I’m lucky enough to be engaged to the love of my life! So, I’d say it was well worth the effort.  The sun is indeed shining brighter as I see Texas Thru My Backdoor.

P.S. If you want Al’s family recipe (with instructions!), either leave a message in the comments on the blog site or drop me a line on Facebook.